Welcome to the ‘Sharing Economy’

Re:Welcome to the ‘Sharing Economy’ by jmtame on Saturday July 20, 2013 @09:33PM (#6077403)

Were there hidden fees that you didn't see? I filter by price and feedback, so I know the hosts are legit. The cleaning fees are shown on the listing. They show you response rate, so you know if the hosts are active or not. You won't always receive a response, but that's why I never message people who have no reviews or a low response rate. They may just be trying it out casually ("window shoppers"). My experiences have been very positive when I've used it--which isn't that often, but when I do, I no longer even consider hotels.

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Re:Welcome to the ‘Sharing Economy’ by seiji on Saturday July 20, 2013 @09:54PM (#6077460)

Well, the fees do get paid whether they're listed externally or not. If the fees are $250, then the lister is just jacking up the listed price by $250.

The cleaning fees had some wording like "if necessary" or "if damage is done," but it was never returned or communicated nothing would be returned.

(Sidenote: There's also no recourse or discount for "weirdness." The lady whose second bedroom I rented had her non-english-speaking mother stay for two weeks (unannounced, unasked--suddenly there was just someone new living there) whose hobbies included power sanding furniture starting about two hours before daylight and taking up the entire kitchen for five hours a day.)

The response rate things are okay, but there are still tons of people who cannot communicate effectively online (or even form coherent thoughts in person most days). It's a crapshoot. (Kinda like trying to sell things on craigslist -- you never realize how many weirdos are out there until you have something they want. "Yoooooo maaan... will you take some pot for tha xbox? we aint got no monay.")

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Re:Welcome to the ‘Sharing Economy’ by jmtame on Saturday July 20, 2013 @11:01PM (#6077598)

I think you had a bad experience with that one listing -- and the proper recourse is to write an honest review, just as you would on Yelp for an experience that wasn't what you were expecting. This helps prevent it from happening in the future.

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Re:Welcome to the ‘Sharing Economy’ by seiji on Sunday July 21, 2013 @12:00PM (#6079176)

That's tricky too, isn't it? You're writing a public review with your name attached directly about another person, in public, with their name attached. I'm not comfortable doing that at all.

Hell, I'm not comfortable reviewing an air mattress I bought on amazon.

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